A new era in palaeomicrobiology: prospects for ancient dental calculus as a long-term record of the human oral microbiome

TY - JOUR

T1 - A new era in palaeomicrobiology

T2 - prospects for ancient dental calculus as a long-term record of the human oral microbiome

AU - Warinner, Christina

AU - Speller, Camilla

AU - Collins, Matthew J

N1 - © 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.

PY - 2015/1

Y1 - 2015/1

N2 - The field of palaeomicrobiology is dramatically expanding thanks to recent advances in high-throughput biomolecular sequencing, which allows unprecedented access to the evolutionary history and ecology of human-associated and environmental microbes. Recently, human dental calculus has been shown to be an abundant, nearly ubiquitous, and long-term reservoir of the ancient oral microbiome, preserving not only microbial and host biomolecules but also dietary and environmental debris. Modern investigations of native human microbiota have demonstrated that the human microbiome plays a central role in health and chronic disease, raising questions about changes in microbial ecology, diversity and function through time. This paper explores the current state of ancient oral microbiome research and discusses successful applications, methodological challenges and future possibilities in elucidating the intimate evolutionary relationship between humans and their microbes.

AB - The field of palaeomicrobiology is dramatically expanding thanks to recent advances in high-throughput biomolecular sequencing, which allows unprecedented access to the evolutionary history and ecology of human-associated and environmental microbes. Recently, human dental calculus has been shown to be an abundant, nearly ubiquitous, and long-term reservoir of the ancient oral microbiome, preserving not only microbial and host biomolecules but also dietary and environmental debris. Modern investigations of native human microbiota have demonstrated that the human microbiome plays a central role in health and chronic disease, raising questions about changes in microbial ecology, diversity and function through time. This paper explores the current state of ancient oral microbiome research and discusses successful applications, methodological challenges and future possibilities in elucidating the intimate evolutionary relationship between humans and their microbes.

U2 - 10.1098/rstb.2013.0376

DO - 10.1098/rstb.2013.0376

M3 - Article

C2 - 25487328

SN - 1471-2970

VL - 370

JO - Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society Of London Series B - Biological Sciences

JF - Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society Of London Series B - Biological Sciences

IS - 1660

M1 - 20130376

ER -